2018_05_14_ARQ_cruz_carlos_III

María Antonia Frías, a professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, received together with her sisters, María Rosario and María Pilar, the Cross Carlos III the Noble of Navarra. A award granted by the Government of Navarra in recognition of her contribution "to change the role of women in architecture".

The president of the Comunidad Foral, Uxue Barkos, highlighted the effort, perseverance and entrepreneurship of the sisters and the other six award winners; and specified that the Frías sisters "have broken the mold, entering a professional field as masculine as architecture".

The professor, who has a professional career spanning approximately 48 years, was one of the two women in the second graduating class of the School of Architecture; and the third woman, after her sister Maria Rosario, who enrolled at the high school Official Basque-Navarre Architects' Association in 1970. Years later, her sister Maria Pilar, also a former student and teacher at the School, would do the same.

When did you become interested in architecture?

When I had to decide between sciences or arts in the high school, I chose sciences although I liked both; that's why I was attracted to a degree program like Architecture, which has an important humanistic part together with the creative and technical ones. I knew it through my father's work , who had his professional office at home. And more immediately, when it was time to make up my mind, through my older sister.

Surprisingly, all three sisters are architects - did they influence each other?

Evidently the pioneer was she who, opening the way five years earlier, made it seem to us that Architecture was like any other degree program. But last year, in an interview with the three of us at the initiative of high school , listening to each other, we saw to what extent it was my father, building engineer, who gradually awakened -in each of us in a different way- this inclination.

How did you become interested in teaching?

The director of the School encouraged all my class to start the doctorate that was going to be launched. Shortly afterwards he summoned me, because Luis Moya Blanco was coming to teach Aesthetics and Composition, and he wanted me to be his teaching assistant. This implied doing the doctoral thesis with him, and the subject that he had proposed for his teaching attracted me. It was a privilege to accompany him for almost 20 years, although my thesis was completed in 1974, being presented two years later.

At the beginning, research is of interest with the continuous update of knowledge. Once trained, the relationship staff with the students is very attractive: both learning from them and opening new horizons for them; transmitting to them the inherited culture and personal discoveries. In this subject every course is different. Truth, goodness and beauty take on everything. Applied to art and architecture, so closely linked to human life in all its aspects, they have great appeal.

How would you summarize your professional degree program ? What achievements would you highlight?

The important thing is what is done every day: its impact on the many people it is intended to serve. Initially I had an intense practical practice of architecture; then I collaborated with various artists and in applied arts. In the end it was exclusively research and teaching, enriched by the experience acquired.

Undoubtedly, the first accredited specialization of honor or award in pre-project competitions, the award Extraordinary of doctorate, the incorporation to the Royal Academy of Doctors of Spain or the award Europe; it is exciting to be a Member advisor of the Center of programs of study Europeans or the International Advisory Board of the Center for Fundamental Studies in Modern Culture, St. Petersburg (Russia). The Architecture Projects and development I (Peru) and II (Guatemala), building with students housing and equipment for indigenous communities affected by natural disasters, were intense experiences. Also without seeking them, they were recognized here and in those countries.

Simultaneously, the interdisciplinary Chair Félix Huarte of Aesthetics and Contemporary Art, of the School of Philosophy and Letters, and the group of research ART T&H, born of the department of Theory and History that I directed for 23 years in the School of Architecture, have been the usual areas of work. Now we are looking for resources to work on developing and internationally disseminating the intellectual bequest of one of its best members, Professor Joaquín Lorda, an architect from Navarre, who died unexpectedly at the height of his maturity.

Without forgetting the extra-academic work with students and colleagues, it was specifically AFA, project European NOW (New Opportunities for Women) and its Transnational part: Equality, Employment; Ecology (Rome, Berlin and Vienna), which led to greater contacts with women architects from all over the world. In these and other activities, such as Habitat II in Istanbul, my sisters and Professor teaching assistant Marian Castro collaborated. The knowledge and the dissemination of Navarrese architecture, is from the initial project "Architectural heritage of the Camino de Santiago in Navarra", in "Public spaces of the city of Pamplona", or in "The archives of Navarrese architects". And monographically in congresses, publications, courses or invitations to special events, such as "La Semana de España" in Guatemala.

Feeling the importance of my roots, together these initiatives have led me to travel all over the world and have allowed me to meet very different people and to have profound human and supernatural experiences that have marked my life. And in return, I hope to have left my mark on the lives of others.

The Government of Navarra recognizes your initiative and entrepreneurship - and that of your sisters - to change the role of women in architecture. Are you satisfied with the current status of women architects?

In my opinion, the Government of Navarra recognizes our joint work by valuing, more than extraordinary achievements, the fact that we are three Navarre sisters who have developed our degree program here at a very early age, persevering with effort for a long time, paving the way for others. Our life and professional trajectory is in part diverse and perhaps for this reason, the three of us together, can better represent the professional development of other women architects of our time. It seems obvious that doing anything the first time entails added difficulties that no longer arise later.

The changes are progressive, and the achievements add up in the different generations. The current status is more favorable, but there is still room for progress and for reaching more relevant positions or greater recognition and social influence, for the good of all. In addition, along with new opportunities, there are always new challenges to be faced. Therefore, I think that this recognition is for all of them; those who have preceded us and those who will take over from us.

What does it mean to receive the Cross of Carlos III the Noble of Navarre?

It is a great honor that Navarra, through the Government that grants this award, recognizes not only our work, but implicitly that of all women architects. It is a great joy and a boost that strengthens our commitment to her.

In addition to thanking the Government of Navarre, we must also thank high school Basque-Navarre Architects, represented by its Dean, and the Navarre Delegation of the same. Because, in addition to knowing that we are supported by them (i.e. by our colleagues), we consider that, once again, the social work of architecture as a profession is also being recognized. The School of Architecture is undoubtedly a privileged place to transform, through the training and the impulse of the research, that role of women that, as it becomes more present, will benefit society as a whole.